District Court judges Mary Rosner, left, and Marci Beyer attend a recent meet and greet for La Clinica and were joined by County Commissioner Wayne Hancock and local mental health advocate Ron Gurley, right.(Photo11: Robin Zielinski / Sun-News)

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Many gather for the La Clinica de Familia meet and greet Sept. 16 at its mental health facility on Griggs Avenue. The agency took over Medicaid-funded behavoiral health care in early August(Photo11: Robin Zielinski - Sun-News)

LAS CRUCES — A month and a half after taking over the provision of Medicaid-funded behavioral health care from a former organization, La Clinica de Familia officials said recently the transition has mostly gone smoothly, but with a few bumps.In July, the last month local Medicaid behavioral health was run by former provider La Frontera, some 4,000 client visits took place, said La Clinica de Familia Executive Director Suzan Martinez de Gonzales.

“In the month of August, there was a little over 4,000 visits,” she said. “That tells me that, virtually, it was seamless for the consumer. Our goal was to make sure the transition was as seamless as possible for the consumers.”

Rosario Olivera, LCDF director of behavioral health, said a psycho social rehab program has seen an uptick in client numbers.

“Within the first week, our numbers went up,” she said. “The clients are happy to be coming back.”

In addition, some local agencies and hospitals that had reduced referrals to La Frontera for out-patient behavioral health care, a key function of the Medicaid-funded provider, have since restarted them, LCDF officials said. This means that if a person is in need of routine therapy or services, the agencies have started specifying La Clinica as a place to go.

“There were a number of relationships, especially with correctional facilities in the area, that La Frontera had let fall to the wayside,” Martinez de Gonzales said.

Martinez de Gonzales said LCDF is trying to rebuild those lost connections.

Olivera said LCDF has had slightly more than 200 referrals for new clients.

Kickoff event

La Clinica hosted an event in mid-September, marking its new role as provider of Medicaid-funded mental health care. Martinez said the organization wasn’t able to do that earlier — LCDF took over Aug. 1 — because of the busyness of the transition. But she didn’t want the milestone to pass by unrecognized, especially for the organization’s new mental health staff.

In all, the organization has added 184 positions, both incorporating former La Frontera staff — about 85 percent of them — and some newly created positions, LCDF officials have said. Among those, there are about 50 to 55 vacancies, Martinez de Gonzales said.

Olivera said La Clinica has seen interest from former behavioral health workers who’d left the field under former providers but now want to “re-engage in services for the community.”

Even so, Martinez de Gonzales said she expects finding enough qualified staff to be a challenge going forward, especially because demand for services are expected to continue to increase.

“Recruiting is hard; there isn’t a deep well of people out there to pull from,” she said. “I think the biggest challenge ahead of us will be staff.”

Asked his take on the transition to La Clinica, Ron Gurley, longtime mental health advocate with the local chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness, said he thinks everybody is “pretty much very pleased with the extraordinary efforts being made to get this transitioned from where it was.”

“At the same time, there are some gaps that I think everybody is working on to try to fill in terms of adult mental health and timeliness of getting prescriptions, especially those people released from jail and those people released” from the state mental health hospital in Las Vegas.

Olivera said there is one staff person in Las Cruces capable of prescribing medication, and another is being hired. While there is coverage of Anthony, it’s not full-time she said. A key problem is a shortage of qualified personnel in the area.

Authorizations

LCDF officials said they’re still working with the state to get a series of certifications.

Also, they have to get “change in scope” authorizations from the federal government to add each of the new behavior health care facilities to its organization. Martinez de Gonzales said the first change in scope for one of 11 facilities was issued last week.

“We haven’t received the second one, but once we do, we’ll have a better idea of how long it’s going to take,” she said.

New Mexico Human Services Department spokesman Matt Kennicott said the transitions from La Frontera, including in other parts of southern New Mexico, have “gone smoothly.”

“Consumers continue to receive the care they had received previous to the transitions,” he said. “Statewide, we are seeing more consumers access care than ever before.”

The state contracts with Managed Care Organizations to administer Medicaid claims and funding. They in turn contract with Medicaid service providers, such as La Clinica.

Martinez de Gonzales said that while there have been bumps and barriers, the work of several entities involved has “helped us to move forward.”

“We’re really happy with the way it has gone,” she said.

Diana Alba Soular may be reached at dalba@lcsun-news.com, @AlbaSoular on Twitter or 575-541-5443.